RV Living and Health Care

We are back in Wisconsin for most of the Summer this year. As you know, we live in our RV full time. One thing that is problematic for many of us who live this lifestyle is health care. I’ll give you a couple of examples.

One of the biggest bugaboos is insurance. Many states do not offer any kind of national plans. Wisconsin, for example, doesn’t have Blue Cross Blue Shield unless you get through your employer and your employer has to be based in a state that offers it!

So, we end up with health insurance through the marketplace, and thank goodness for that, or I wouldn’t be eligible for insurance. The problem is that the network, and in network doctors, are all in Wisconsin. That means, and so far, knock on wood, we haven’t used it outside of Wisconsin, that many things require pre-approval and there is extra expense involved for “out of network” doctors.
Of course, when you live in an RV, we usually spend 80% of our time away from Wisconsin, where we maintain our residency and a mailing address. So we are almost always out of network.

The second issue, is prescription drugs and how to get them renewed and filled. We solved that problem by not renewing them. We just go across the border into Mexico at Los Algodones, and stock up. Prescriptions are not required for most drugs and if they are, you can always make an appointment in Mexico.

The interesting thing is that Terri get’s a years worth of blood pressure medication for about what it costs for a months worth in the US!

So far it has worked for us, but, it would certainly be a much better deal to just have health care available regardless of where a person lives. Even people who aren’t nomads can find themselves needing emergency care, “out of network”.